


Telling the Bees

by Control_Room



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Bees, Bittersweet, Kisses, M/M, Moral Ambiguity, Rambling, complaining, telling the bees, war drafts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-10
Updated: 2020-01-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:34:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22199443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Control_Room/pseuds/Control_Room
Summary: There's a lot on his chest.
Relationships: Joey Drew/Henry Stein
Comments: 11
Kudos: 22





	Telling the Bees

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Parrot_Assbutt](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Parrot_Assbutt/gifts).



Toasted strawberry bread, topped with fresh honey and blueberries. That’s what he munched on as he leaned on the apiary, the bees buzz humming around him. The small ridge that he had built the apiary on overlooked his roses, and he could see flecks of gold as some bees bobbed between the plants, stimulating their growth. He breathed in the warm air, and tried to gather his thoughts, yet could think of nothing, so he simply held his breath.

Then let it all out.

“Y’know, I was thinkin’ about Wills and Shawn,” he confessed to none other but the honey creating beings. “Nothing like that, just thinking about them in general. I dunno if I’m worried or something else, but… I guess I’m happy for them? But I feel like Willy is taking on a lot more than he can handle. I tried offerin’ him a raise or slipping him some extra cash, but he nixed both ideas. I don’t really know how to handle the situation. If I give Shawn the raise, I figure that he’d just blow it on pretty lil’ trinkets.”

A few bees stopped their work to listen, turning their little antenna to focus on him. 

“Bertie an’ Lacie got into a petty argument over some measurements, and they dragged Norman and Thomas into it as well,” he threw his hands up in the air as some of the bees buzzed with a questioning attitude. “I dunno why them! Maybe they were the closest to ‘em at the time, or just to mess with the other.” 

A few bees landed on his shoulders in an image of comforting him. He flopped backwards, groaning as he rubbed his eyes. He was so tired, but he was sun deprived, and it had been a while since he had spoken to his fuzzed flying familial extensions. Feeling one had landed on his cheek, his finger gently patted it, with much more tenderness than one could expect from such a giant being. 

“I dunno what to do,” he said, suddenly hollow. “I don’t want him to leave, but I’m so scared of… you know. Bringing it up. Apparently hunting down a wolf and offering it’s heart as a token of affection to a loved one is not normal behavior, so how am I to know how to propose?!”

One of the bees made an odd clicking noise, and he nodded.

“I know it’s a complicated situation, but I don’t think that you’d have a good idea for it, would ya? Bein’ that you’re not human, so you wouldn’t know all the rituals and stuff, right?” a slow sigh escaped him, and he rolled over on the grass, closing his eyes and breathing in the smells and molecules in the air, the scents on the winds. “What the hell am I supposed to do? ‘Hey, Henry, I want to marry you but I have no idea how to ask, can you explain and then forget that I asked?’ Or should I go to someone else for advice? But who? Grant’s probably got a different view on it, ‘cause he’s jewish, and most everyone probably would go off and tell Henry before I get a chance to even figure out step one.”

“Step one of what?” Henry’s voice came before the man. Joey’s eyes snapped open, his mouth almost following suit, until Henry’s chapped lips pressed against his. His eyes fluttered shut, content, but his heart pounded, worried. How much had Henry heard? Henry pulled back, smiling softly. “What are you talking about, honeybee? Sometimes it’s like you’re one of them.”

“I’m tellin’ the bees.”

“What are you telling them?”

“Everything, pretty much.”

“Why, though?” Henry’s eyebrow rose as he lowered himself to lay down on the grass, perpendicular to Joey. “Honestly, sweetheart, it’s pretty funny to see you laying around and spilling your heart’s woes to a metric ton of bees.”

“It helps them stay happy and healthy,” Johan fumbled to explain. “Just… tradition. It’s also a way to just get things out. Just letting it all out.”

“Wouldn’t a therapist be better for that?” Henry asked, teasingly. His hand came to meet Joey’s, giving it a soft squeeze of reassurance. Some birds chirped in the distance in the silence that followed. “You know it’s healthy, Jo, to get things out with a person.”

Unimpressed red eyes looked at Henry’s earth blue and green ones. Then the stubbornness broke into something more troubled, and he looked away, up at the sky.

“I don’t understand courting rituals.”

“Cou- Johan, do you mean dating?”

Joey tossed his hands to the sides.

“I guess?!” he breathed in, realizing he was getting frustrated for nothing. “I don’t know, Henry. Any of this. I’m… I’m a little lost.”

“It’s ok. I’m sure spending some time getting fresh sea air will lighten you up and things will get better when you get back.”

“I don’t wanna leave.” Joey whimpered, suddenly feeling tears in his eyes. He forced them away, rubbing at his eyes furiously. This was why he was really here. Telling the bees, yes, but not the petty things he had been rambling about. It was about his draft card. Terror spilled into him, only worsened by that horrifying stamp that read ‘marines’. “I don’t wanna go, Henry.”

“You have to,” Henry forlornly reminded him, running his hands through his hair. “We went through so much to be able to get separate shifts, you know. So that at least one of us would be here to take care of the kids and the studio. If you back out now, who knows what’ll happen.”

“I’m scared,” Johan stated. His expression went blank, and Henry’s twisted into sadness. “Please… Henry.”

Henry could think of nothing to do, so he just squeezed Joey’s hand again, kissing his knuckles. 

“It’ll be okay.”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

“And I love your bees, too,” Henry grinned. “Darling honeybee.”

“Oh, shush, doc.”

“C’mere, you,” Henry smiled, cuddling close to him.


End file.
